China-India martial arts masters meet at famed Shaolin Temple

[ChinaToday]

Kung fu is one of a number of Chinese martial arts designed to refine the body and the mind. It is perhaps one of the most widely known Chinese martial arts, because many films incorporate kung fu techniques. There are hundreds of styles of kung fu taught all over the world, although they can be loosely divided into two camps: Shaolin style kung fu, and other techniques, some of which have a history which out dates the Shaolin order.

Kung fu is seen with a variety of different spellings including gung fu and gong fu. This spelling variation is due to the difficulty of transliterating from Chinese to other languages. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese was transliterated using the Wade-Giles system, which transposed the Chinese “g” sound with a “k.” Parts of China and Taiwan still use the Wade-Giles system, but most of China has begun to use pinyin, which has replaced the “k” of the Wade-Giles system with a “g.” Bruce Lee and other famous martial artists from China also use the “g” when talking about gung fu.

Shaolin gung fu has its origins in the fifth century. Like some other martial arts, it began in religious temples, where the monks sought a mind and body discipline. In addition to the fighting style, kung fu also includes mental exercises and religious practices designed to balance the whole body. Kung fu is fundamentally about aligning the practitioner with chi, the life force which is believed to move all around us.

Shaolin temples resembled universities, integrating a wide range of subjects of study. Therefore, traditional Shaolin styles such as Wing Chun, Crane, Praying Mantis, and Hung Gar incorporate knowledge from fields outside martial arts, such as the healing arts and meditation. Advocates for Shaolin styles believe that they are more rounded martial arts styles, and that practitioners will benefit from them on a whole body level.

Other fighting styles, some of which predate the Shaolin style, are also lumped under the kung fu umbrella. They include Pa-Kua, Eagle Claw, and Eight Drunken Immortals styles. These kung fu disciplines are not considered to be Shaolin style because they did not originate in temples, and are focused primarily on fighting techniques.

Whether Shaolin or otherwise, kung fu is characterized by self defense tactics which turn the energy of an attacker against him or her. Although the techniques may vary, individual kung fu styles teach grapples, throws, kicks, punches, and the use of weapons such as staffs. In addition to the physical discipline, most kung fu styles place an emphasis on respect, honor, and living a balanced life.

What is Kung Fu?

 

[ChinaToday]

Martial Arts: Dim Mak (Death Touch)

Dim Mak, also know as Death Touch, is the ancient martial art of striking vital points of an opponent’s body. These strikes are engineered to cause “knock-out”, death or delayed reaction in the opponent.

These vital points are the same as used for healing in acupuncture and other Asian healing arts. Dim Mak is an integral part of all martial arts. However, very few instructors know much of specific Dim Mak techniques, and those that do are reluctant to pass on this knowledge to their students.

Most pressure points are located along the center line, an important concept of many Kung Fu styles including Wing Chun Kung Fu. Pressure points exist in the arms, legs, back and head, and they are also considered when protecting major striking targets along the centre line.

Origin of Dim Mak: China

Martial Arts Info - Dim Mak

 

[Obambam]

Being able to point finger and paralyze someone without being touched isn't new. Chinese Kung Fu have advanced beyond that stage already.

Kung Fu masters can now molest or even kill their opponents from afar with little trouble at all. Here's the prove:

 

[ChinaToday]

with dim mak we can actually killing you without you even realising it

 

[nForce]

hey..both the Indian and Chinese members...stop this juvenile mud throwing okay??

You will not achieve anything in this cyber-fight of these two martial arts specially when they are fought using the keyboard.

Be it Kalari,be it Kung-fu,these are all arts of people of different people,and art,by its very nature cannot be compared.Its foolish to say that my art is better than yours and vice versa.
These two are age old tradition of different places and very much a part of the traditions of people belonging to different ethnicity.Lets respect them both,appreciate the event reported in OP and move along....

 

[ChinaToday]

a tai chi pactionner is trained to take on some one 3 times his own size

 

[RPK]

History of Varma Kalai
Varma Kalai during Pandya and Chola

Extent of the Pandya Territories c. 1250 C.E.

The art of Varma Kalai have been in existence on the Indian sub-continent for thousands of years practiced by ancient Tamils of Tamil Nadu, Tamil Eelam (Northeast Sri Lanka), Kerala, and the Southern portion of present day Andhra Pradesh. Varma Kalai is one of the deadliest form of martial art in history. The tamil word “Varma" means "vital points" and "Kalai” means "art", hence it is translated as the “the art of vital points”. Varma Kalai is also known by following names: Varma Kalai, Varmak Kalai, Varma adi, Marma Adi, Varma Sastra, Varma Vidya, Marma Vidya, Marma kalai, Varma Kalari, Kalari Varma etc.

The art of Varma Kalai originally evolved from the Tamil science of SIddha medicine into a martial art and is called the art of healing and killing. It was developed by gurus and experts of siddha during the Pandyan dynasty and nourished and promoted by the Cholas. Legend has it that during the development period of Varma Kalai, experiments were done on slaves and captured warriors to discover the weakness in the human body. Thousands of captive warriors and slaves gave their lives on the process of discovering all vital points of the human body for the purpose of gaining the rich knowledge contained in art of Varma Kalai.
slave prisoner torture

Pressure Point experimentation on slaves and war prisoners to formulate Varma Kalai

The Pandyas, along with Chola and Chera, were the three ancient kingdoms which ruled the Tamil country until the end of the 15th century. The Pandyan kingdom of southern India was founded around 500 BC and was considered by historians as the richest kingdom in the world. Pandyas were fierce warriors. The early Pandyan dynasty was revived under Kadungon in the early 6th century, but again went into decline with the rise of the Cholas in the 9th century and were in constant conflict with them. The Pandyas revived again during the late 13th century by alliying themselves with the Sinhalese and the Cheras and expanded the empire into Telugu country and conquered the northern half of Sri Lanka. The Pandyan Kingdom finally became extinct after the establishment of the Madurai Sultanate in the 16th century.
dr yuree in Kanchipuram

Grand Master Dr. Yuree standing in front of the PALLAVA dynasty’s last piece of structure at Kanchipuram, the birth place of Bodhidharma.

At the turn of the 6th century A.D., martial arts spread from Southern India to China by a Tamil prince turned monk named Daruma Bodhidarma, the third prince of King Sugandha in Kanchipuram province, the then capital of the Southern Indian kingdom of Pallava. Bodhidharma had his childhood in Kanchipuram and became one of the most brilliant students of the Vedas, Siddha medicine, meditation and philosophy and as a prince he was taught by different masters and experts the deadly art of Varma Kalai along with other arts. Bodhidharma later played a pioneer role in the root and history of formalized Martial Arts. Daruma Bodhidharma became the 28th patriarch and founder of Chan or Zen doctrine and went to China to spread Buddism according to the wishes of his master Prajnatara. Bodhidharma settled in the Shaolin Temple of Henan province but found that the Chinese monks under him were frail and weak. He formulated a physical fitness and martial arts training guideline for the monks from his knowledge of Yoga, Varma Kalai, Vajramushti. His teaching to monks later evolved into different Chinese martial arts which can be seen to contain the advance component of Dim Mak (or dim hsueh) containing the same 108 varma points which originated from his knowledge of Varma Kalai. Thereafter, different variations and specialization of martial arts took place from China and spread to Korea & Japan having a continued deep influence of pressure point knowledge originating from art of Varma Kalai.

Dr. Yuree inside Shaolin temple beside a statue of Bodhidharma in Hunan, China.

The art of varma kalai travelled from India to China through Bodhidharma and later to other areas, but the complete authentic knowledge remained back in India which slowly decreased in existence due to lack of patronization and use due to end of the war eras and introduction of firearms and advanced warfare weapons. The deadly unarmed art of Varma Kalai only remained in the minds of some Great Assans and some written in some palm leaf manuscripts kept in secret. Gradually some of those palm were revealed to public over the years, but still most remain secret. The ancient tradition of transmission of knowledge of Varma Kalai went underground and was only passed through family lineage and rarely to very dedicated disciples, and this number became very few due to its use in war decreased.

Over the years, the knowledge being passed to some criminals and miscreants made the Assans (Masters) of Varma Kalai even more protective of this deadly ancient wisdom and the transmission of knowledge has decreased so much its going from obscurity to extinction. Some experts fear that some of the only few living masters maybe the last generation of the authentic masters of Varma Kalai who, with their passing, will end the passing of authentic knowledge of this great combat art.

Another reason for decreasing the study and practice of Varma Kalai is that it is a highly comprehensive and knowledge rich martial art and takes considerable amount of time to learn the healing and combat aspect which has stymied the popularity of this martial art with the youth who choose to study less time-consuming martial arts. So much severe and incredible are the effects of application of Varma Kalai and that much, even more, are the quality, patience and character required to maintain, preserve and handle such an Art. Today this extremely powerful art is losing much of its heritage and is slowly fading away due to lack of transmission of knowledge and deceasing of authentic masters.
Dr Yuree with Legendary Grand Master Vaskaran

Dr Yuree with Legendary Varma Kalai Grand Master,
Assan Vaskaran, Tamil Nadu.

Now, Grand Master Dr. Yuree, an expert on Varma Kalai who has rigorously researched on this subject and trained under many great Assans including the legendary Assan Varkaran, who has learnt the art from 18 original masters of Varma Kalai. Dr. Yuree has founded the art of Combat Varma Kalai trying to revive this highly rich art. Combat Varma Kalai tries only to contain effective and applicable methods from Varma Kalai to impart knowledge quicker than traditional Varma Kalai and gain back popularity of this lost art. Today Dr. Yuree is only one to stand distinguished in world of martial art to represent the great treasures of Indian systems of self defense with a special international activity and recognition. Combat Varma Kalai continues to work to revive the fading art of Varma Kalai and being is being adopted by military and Special Forces.

 

[WARRANT]

Bodhidharma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[naveenp]

Styles

As in other respects of Indian culture, Indian martial arts can be roughly divided into northern and southern styles, more or less corresponding to the major ethno-linguistic grouping of Indo-Aryan vs. Dravidian speaking populations. The main difference is, again as in Indian culture in general, that northern India was more exposed to Persianate influence during the Mughal period, while Southern India is more conservative in preserving ancient and medieval traditions. The exception to this rule are the northeastern states which, due to their geographic location, were closed off from most pre-European foreign invaders. Northeast Indian culture and fighting methods are also closely related to that of Southeast Asia. In addition to the major division between north and south India, martial systems in South Asia tend to be associated with certain states, cities, villages or ethnic groups.
[edit] North India

* Shastar Vidiya is a weapon-based style of śastravidyā passed on/re-introduced to the Sikhs of the Punjab by Guru Hargobind Sahib and Guru Gobind Singh.
* Gatka is a weapon-based sport created during the British Empire by Sikhs of the Punjab.
* Lathi is a style of cane-fighting originally practiced by village herdsmen.
* Mardani khel is an armed method created by the Marathas of Maharashtra.
* Musti yuddha is a style of kickboxing, popular in the Middle Ages but now confined to Varanasi.
* Pari-khanda is a style of sword and shield fighting from Bihar.
* Thang-ta or huyen lalong is an armed system created by the Meitei of Manipur.

[edit] South India

* Kalaripayat has its roots in the combat training halls (payattu kalari) of Kerala's traditional war training system.
* Silambam is a weapon-based style from Tamil Nadu which focuses on the bamboo staff.

[edit] Wrestling

Wrestling arts are found throughout India and were generically referred to in Sanskrit as malavidya or 'science of grappling'. True combat-wrestling is called malla-yuddha, while the term malakhra refers to wrestling for sport. Malla-yuddha was codified into four forms which progressed from purely sportive contests of strength to actual full-contact fights known as yuddha.[28] Due to the extreme violence, this final form is generally no longer practiced. The second form, wherein the wrestlers attempt to lift each other off the ground for three seconds, still exists in south India. Malla-yuddha is virtually extinct in the north where it has been supplanted by Mughal pehlwani. Vajra-musti was another old grappling art in which the competitors wrestled while wearing a cestus-like knuckleduster. In a later variation, the duellists fought with a bagh nakh.

Numerous styles of folk wrestling are also found in India's countryside, such as mukna from Manipur and Inbuan wrestling from Mizoram.

 

[naveenp]

Middle Ages (11th to 15th centuries)

The earliest treatise discussing the techniques of malla-yuddha is the Malla Purana (ca. 13th century). Other old styles like varma kalai,[6] and kalaripayat had developed into their present forms by the 11th century, during an extended period of warfare between the Chera and Chola dynasties.[7]

Organised martial arts in ancient India included malla-yuddha, or combat-wrestling, codified into four forms,[21] Stories describing Krishna report that he sometimes engaged in wrestling matches where he used knee strikes to the chest, punches to the head, hair pulling, and strangleholds.[6] Based on such accounts, Svinth (2002) traces press ups and squats used by Indian wrestlers to the pre-classical era.[6]

There are scattered references to dhanurveda in other medieval texts, such as the Kamandakiya Nitisara (ca. 8th c.[citation needed], ed. Dutt, 1896), the Nitivakyamrta by Somadeva Suri (10th century), the Yuktikalpataru of Bhoja (11th century) and the Manasollasa of Somesvara III (12th century) There is an extant dhanurveda-samhita dating to the mid 14th century, by Brhat Sarngadhara Paddhati (ed. 1888).[citation needed]
[edit] Mughal era (1526 to 1857)
The khanda, a native straight sword

After a series of victories, the conqueror Babur established Mughal rule in North India during the 16th century. The Mughals, Persians of Mongol descent, practiced martial techniques such as wrestling and mounted archery. By combining indigenous malla-yuddha with Turkic and Mongolian wrestling they created the grappling style pehlwani which has remained popular until today, particularly among Muslims. One of the Mughals' most enduring legacies on Indian martial arts was their introduction of the Turkish-influenced talwar (scimitar). Although curved blades had been used in India since ancient times, the straight khanda (double-edge sword) had enjoyed greater popularity until then.

The Ausanasa Dhanurveda Sankalanam dates to the late 16th century, compiled under the patronage of Akbar.[citation needed] There is also a 17th-century Dhanurveda-samhita attributed to Vasistha.
[edit] Maratha era (1650 to 1857)

The Marathas came to prominence during the 17th century due mostly to the efforts of Shivaji Raje Bhosle and later, his son Sambhaji. Owing to the hilly geography of Maharashtra, the Marathas excelled in guerilla warfare. Favoured by the Mughal rulers as loyal commanders of the army, they were made official protectors of the throne between 1720 and 1740. By 1751 they had control of western Deccan and became the most important power in India. The Marathas created a fighting system called mardani khel which focuses on weaponry, particularly swords. Its movements are rapid and makes use of low stances suited to the hill ranges where it originated. Shivaji himself was trained in armed combat from an early age and was an expert in the use of various arms,[22] including the sword, bagh nakh, and bichawa (scorpion knife). His weapon of choice was a 4-foot sword named Bhawani, with a small handle and a spike upon the hilt for thrusting.
[edit] Paika Rebellion of Khurda (1817)

Paika is the Oriya word for fighter or warrior (Padatika Bahini). Their style of fighting, known as paika akhada, can be traced back to ancient Kalinga and was at one time patronised by King Kharavela.[23] In March 1817, under the leadership of Buxi Jagabandhu Bidydhar Mohapatra, nearly 400 Khanda of Ghumusar in Ganjam marched towards Khurda in protest against British colonial rule. Many government buildings were burnt down and all the officials fled. The British commander of one detachment was killed during a battle at Gangpada. The paika managed to capture two bases at Puri and Pipli before spreading the rebellion further to Gop, Tiran, Kanika and Kujang. The revolt lasted a year and a half before being quelled by September 1818.[24][25] With the rebellion put down, the colonists were more vigorous in their attempts to stamp out the martial practices of Odisha. Today, paika akhada has been preserved only as a performance art.
[edit] Modern period (1857 to present)

Indian martial arts underwent a period of decline after the full establishment of British colonial rule in the 19th century.[17] More European modes of organizing police, armies and governmental institutions, and the increasing use of firearms, gradually eroded the need for traditional combat training associated with caste-specific duties.[7] The British colonial government banned kalaripayat in 1804 in response to a series of revolts.[26] Silambam was also banned and became more common in the Malay Peninsula than its native Tamil Nadu. During this time, many fighting systems were confined to rural areas. A few became merely performance arts, such as karra samu (stick fighting) and kathi samu (sword fighting) from Andhra Pradesh. The resurgence of public interest in kalaripayat began in the 1920s in Tellicherry as part of a wave of rediscovery of the traditional arts throughout south India which characterized the growing reaction against British colonial rule.[7] During the following three decades, other regional styles were subsequently revived such as silambam in Tamil Nadu, and thang-ta in Manipur.[27]

 

[RPK]

VARMA KALAI - (english)

 

[Abhishek_]

Sadly I've never been a 'true believer' of anything in my life.

sucks to be you

 

[IFB]

Varma kalai is true i have exp. it myself.

 

[praveen]

Can somebody stop these dick comparisons.Its irritating

 

[tallboy123]

guys i need some info
can any one share??
how did Shaolin centers started??
Who are the monks??
Whom do monks pray???
Who is bodhidarma??